NORTHERN Fury coach Ian Ferguson believes midfielder Kevin Fraser could be set for bigger things if he continues his dominant start to the National Premier League season.

The Fury coach is usually reticent to hand out praise to individual players, but after Fraser’s performance in the 1-0 away loss to Palm Beach on Saturday, he couldn’t help but single him out.

The 22-year-old, who has scored two goals in the club’s four games so far this season while setting up a host of others, and is a strong figure in most of what the Fury do.

Former A-league coach Ferguson said he wouldn’t be surprised if other people started to notice the 22-year-old Scotsman, who moved to Townsville with former CQ Energy teammates Jacob and Braedyn Crowley in the off-season.

“The more I see Kevin Fraser playing, and I don’t like singling out individuals, he’s getting better each game,” Ferguson said.

“He’s a player that’s sticking out like a sore thumb for me at the moment and I’m sure if he continues to play in that vein and keep doing what he’s doing I’m sure there will be some interest in him soon from A-league clubs.

“I just love the fact he can go box to box and he retains the ball well and can set things up as well as creating chances for himself.

“He creates chances and creates opportunities and if you watch most of the stuff we play, he’s behind a lot of it which is good.”

Ferguson said he was “gutted” his side wasn’t able to take at least a point over league leaders Palm Beach after going behind from a Troy Ruthven freekick in the sixth minute.

The Fury hit the woodwork twice, spurned two one-on-one opportunities and couldn’t convert a couple of other half chances.

But Ferguson was delighted with his team, saying they had put in their best performance of the year so far against some very tough opposition.

“They stuck to the game plan and won individual battles and everybody did that but that was the right way we want to play football,” he said.

With captain Jacob Crowley missing through suspension, Ferguson moved Corey Waples back into the holding midfield role while promoting teenager Jack Gusmeroli to the starting line-up alongside Fraser, and the youngster played the full 90 minutes.

With another tough match against the Brisbane Strikers next weekend, who are coming off the back of a 3-2 win over defending champions Olympic yesterday, Ferguson said their finishing would be a focus during the week.

“We’ll be working really hard this week on doing one v ones with the goalkeeper and three v twos where we’ll have an overload and the boys need to use that extra man,” he said.

“There’s plenty to work on which is good for us but we’ve just got to be consistent in what we do.